Twelve activists were each slammed with a one-year jail term, and fines of 250 000 Congolese francs by a military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Friday, 1 April 2022.
The activists were members of a pro-democracy group called Struggle for Change (Lucha) formed 2012 in North Kivu’s capital of Goma, were arrested in Beni in North Kivu last November as they took part in an “unauthorised protest against the exceptional measures imposed last year to support a crackdown on armed groups.”
Lucha often describe themselves as a nonviolent, apolitical group campaigning for accountability on the part of leaders.
Amnesty International has condemned the sentence, describing it as a “scandalous attempt to silence critical voices”, and has called for the “immediate and unconditional” release of the activists.